This means that the longer commandments are made into a single verse despite their length, and the short commandments, such as "Lo Tirsah" and "Lo Tinaf," are assigned a brief, two-word verse. Even the very short commandments, such as "Lo Tirsah" and "Lo Tinaf," comprise an independent paragraph, as do the longer commandments, such as "Lo Yihiye" and "Zachor." The "Ta’am Elyon" system of cantillation notes follows this arrangement, and makes each commandment no more and no less than a single verse. One who looks at the text of the Ten Commandments in a Torah scroll will notice that the Torah assigns a separate paragraph for each commandment. What is the difference between these two versions? (There are also different versions of the actual text of the Ten Commandments – one in Parashat Yitro, and one in Parashat Va’ethanan we deal here with the different versions of the Te’amim, not of the text.) If we open to the text of the Ten Commandments in Parashat Yitro or Parashat Va’ethanan in most printed Humashim, we will find the version called "Ta’am Tahton." The second version, which is called "Ta’am Elyon," is generally printed in the back of the Humash or after the Parasha. The Be’ur Halacha (by Rav Yisrael Meir Kagan of Radin, 1839-1933), in this context, notes the two different sets of Te’amim (cantillation notes) that exist for the Ten Commandments. The Shulhan Aruch (Orah Haim 494) rules that on Shabuot we read the section in the Torah that contains the Ten Commandments (in Parashat Yitro).
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